HIV and ID Observations

July 29th, 2012

A Quick Note to Time Magazine

Dear Time Magazine, Thanks for the recent coverage of HIV treatment. One small suggestion: in the future, try to find some some stock photos of HIV medications that are somewhat more up-to-date than, um, 1997, which is what you chose here and here. In our field, seeing these original AZT, ddC, and nelfinavir tablets is kind of like seeing […]

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July 16th, 2012

Sizzling Summer Serratias

Several ID/HIV items to contemplate as the heat really kicks in here in the torrid USA: TDF/FTC approved for pre-exposure prophylaxis. The challenging issues of defining the best candidates for this strategy — and finding the providers to prescribe it — still remain, but FDA approval should at least help justify insurance coverage if clinicians choose […]

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March 22nd, 2012

Identity Crisis

As some of you might have noticed, due to a web snafu here at Mass Medical Society, I was briefly a gastroenterologist earlier this week: Unfortunately, I don’t think this translated in a higher paycheck, even though scoping is much more lucrative than doing ID consults. And while HIV and ID Observations is admittedly a blah name […]

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January 29th, 2012

Pre-Super Sunday Scombroids

Some quick ID/HIV links while we await big guys playing the big game with a big (or at least bigger) ball. Did you see how this doctor cheated Medicaid out of more than $700,000 by prescribing HIV meds to people who didn’t have HIV? Not surprisingly, he’s going to jail. Proof that if there’s money behind a […]

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December 18th, 2011

Let’s Just Say I’m Glad the Grades Don’t Count

A friend alerted me to this test of scientific literacy. Give it a try — no google cheating — and let me know how you do. And even though I got the first 5 questions right, my final score (to be disclosed in the comments, eventually) left little doubt that I was an English major in college. Yeah, that’s […]

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December 4th, 2011

Images are Back

This site has been looking awfully plain the last couple of weeks. No pictures! The reason? You figure it out. But now we’ve got an exciting new treasure-trove of images, and I’m going to take advantage of this resource and provide some very exciting visuals for your enjoyment. Like this one, if you’re feeling cold: And this one too, […]

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October 25th, 2011

Important Reminder: Don’t Eat Raw Garden Slugs

From the pages of the New York Times, courtesy of ProMED, comes this case report: An Australian man has been hospitalized for more than a month in serious condition as a result of eating two garden slugs on a dare…The 21-year-old Sydney man apparently contracted a rat lungworm parasite from the slugs, which pick it up […]

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September 11th, 2011

Must-Read Paper: “Antiscience” and Lyme Disease

As I’ve written before, there are few clinical encounters more challenging for Infectious Diseases specialists than the patient who, despite negative standard  diagnostic testing, believes he/she has Lyme disease. Now, in Lancet Infectious Diseases, comes a paper entitled “Antiscience and ethical concerns associated with advocacy of Lyme disease.” It meticulously describes the distinctive world of alternative diagnosis, treatment, […]

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May 17th, 2011

Physician Bloggers Categorized

About a year ago I linked this cartoon from “Dr. Fizzy”, and I’ve been a regular visitor to her site ever since. Anyway, more kudos to her for this dead-on categorization of MD bloggers. (I guess the British “spot-on” is a better choice for us docs.) Not exactly sure where I fit in this list — yikes — […]

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December 6th, 2010

Tough Diagnoses: Neurosyphilis, Then and Now

During Thanksgiving, my brother-in-law — who is a professional musician and also a passionate history buff — gave me a scholarly paper to review on the strange death of the famous American explorer Meriwether Lewis, of “Lewis and Clark” fame. The bottom line?  Lewis may well have had neurosyphilis — at least that’s the premise of the […]

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